A sandwich I had last week at Falafill in Oak Park also had French fries and harissa in it. Called "The Berber," it was designed by Chef Farid Zadi, and contains falafel, Algerian radish, orange-onion and yogurt-cucumber salad, harissa and French fries.

It's going to be easy to find targets to shoot at Old Crow Smokehouse: tables of dudebros and pixies, and the servers wear cute cowgirl outfits, which cry out for snide commentary from food cognoscenti. But I had a good time at Old Crow; I thought the BBQ was good, so if you're in the neighborhood (like, say, before or after a game), this place is a good bet for a bite.

At Baconfest, I asked several bacon enthusiasts (some celebrities, some just bacon-loving Joes n' Josephines) one question: What does bacon mean to you? The extravagant answers ranged from "essence of life" to "everything." Hear it all on Rivet.

In response to the many similar anti-Fieri diatribes that sprang from Wells' piece, I offer the following defense of Guy Fieri, because there needs to be some balance in this discussion, because I object in principle to the internet pile-on (having been at the bottom of such piles myself), and because I believe, fundamentally, that this guy – however irritating he may be -- has done good for food in the United States.

Bahn Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich: a roll of French bread (reflection of the French occupation of Indochina) with some meat and a lot of fresh vegetables like slivered radish and carrots, cilantro, sliced cucumbers and jalapenos. If you get a Bahn Mi sandwich on the streets of Saigon, the meat inside would likely not be turkey, but I thought the lightly griddled bird meat was a beautiful complement to the vegetables, and with a perky sriracha mayonnaise, this was a fantastic sandwich.

I find that people many times assume that gluten-intolerance means people just don't like wheat…or that they're looking for special treatment and trying to be a pain in the arse. That's just not fair. Admittedly, some prima donna types make unreasonable demands on restaurants, but if someone is trying to be a more conscious eater, that's a good thing. And from the restaurant perspective, I think it is very reasonable to expect the gluten-sensitive to give the restaurant some advance notice about their preferences.

Somewhere, there's a guy or a girl who will read something I wrote or a video I made with Joe Kreml and Patrick Rollens at the Village, and it will make a difference in their dining choices. They'll go to eat somewhere they've never been before, and order something they've never eaten before, and they'll like it. That's why I write.